For this application, the following definitions apply:
The PSTN is the aggregate of all instrumentalities providing and managing telephone call connections between members of the public at large, but excluding instrumentalities that are restricted to special groups of users; e.g. PBX""s, Centrexes, etc.
A xe2x80x9cbase telephone accountxe2x80x9d is an account assigned to a specific customer of the PSTN; an example of such an account would be an account to which telephone calls associated with a specific telephone line are charged (including calls originating at the respective line and calls to that line with reverse charges accepted).
An xe2x80x9cauthorized userxe2x80x9d of a base telephone account is either a customer to whom the account is charged or a party authorized by the customer to use and modify telephone services (standard and extended) to which the account is subscribed.
A standard telephone service is a telephone service delivered to end users of telephone services through communication routes entirely internal to the PSTN.
An extended telephone service, newly defined here, is a telephone service delivered to end users of telephone services through communication routes that are partially internal to the PSTN and partially external to the PSTN (e.g. communication routes extending between internal switch ports in the PSTN and a computer, via the web or Internet).
This invention pertains generally to provision of extended telephone services as defined above. More particularly, the invention pertains to adaptation of AIN intelligence in the PSTN to allow for delivery of extended telephone services as defined above to authorized users of base accounts subscribed to such services. An extended telephone service may (but need not necessarily) comprise a variation of a standard telephone service that is deliverable through networks external to the PSTN (e.g. the web or Internet, satellite radio networks, etc).
In today""s PSTN, end users of standard telephone services (as defined above) have limited options for varying and utilizing respective services.
Parameters relevant to delivery of a standard telephone service can be modified by an authorized end user, but delivery of the respective service invariably remains confined exclusively to the PSTN. For example, parameters of a standard service such as call forwarding can be modified to provide AIN intelligence of the PSTN with a series of telephone numbers within the PSTN that represent alternate destinations to which telephone calls incoming to a telephone line associated with a given base account are to be routed, but these alternate destinations are effectively reachable today only through transmission routes internal to the PSTN. Furthermore, calls forwarded to these alternate destinations generally can not be supplied along with other services. For example, forwarded calls are not accompanied by indications which would be useful to the intended recipient in the event that party is currently busy on another call; e.g. by call waiting and/or caller ID indications that would enable the intended recipient to screen forwarded calls and selectively accept and reject such calls.
It has been suggested previously to use computers linked to AIN intelligence, rough the Internet or web, to vary parameters of telephone services (reference the co-pending application by J. M. Dunn et al, cross-references 3 and 4 above). But services associated with such varied parameters are generally standard services, rather than extended services within the present context of definition, and would be deliverable with limited flexibility in respect to combined use of other services (e.g. a forwarded call generally would not be combinable with a standard but reroutable form of call waiting and/or a standard but reroutable form of caller ID).
Similarly, a standard service like xe2x80x9ccall waitingxe2x80x9d can be administered (enabled and disabled) for individual calls originating at a line associated with a base telephone account (e.g. by dialing or tone signalling the characters xe2x80x9c*70xe2x80x9d before entering other characters representing a called number. It has been suggested to allow for this type of service to be subject to administration through an external network such as the web or Internet, so that the term of enablement or disablement could be varied for more than a single call (refer to Dunn et al cross-reference 3 above), but without altering the essential context of delivery of such service; i.e. the service, when enabled, would be delivered in a standard form and context, and appear as such to the recipient of the service.
Our discovery in this regard is that it could be useful to provide telephone services in a non-standard context; for example, to provide call waiting indications to a computer, through an external network such as the web or Internet (e.g. as data signals causing visible blinking of a xe2x80x9ccall waitingxe2x80x9d icon in e.g. a computer browser display, or audible clicks prompted by the respective browser application), where the respective indications connote a waiting call on a telephone line which may or may not be separate from a line connecting the computer to the external network. Examples of how this could be useful would be: 1) to make a PSTN user operating remote from a home or office instantly aware of telephone call activity at the respective home or office; 2) to make a computer user linked to a data network such as the web, through a home or office telephone line used for standard telephony, instantly aware of telephone call activity being directed to that line.
Similarly, a standard service like caller ID has no present xe2x80x9cextendedxe2x80x9d counterpart for delivery by the PSTN through external networks.
Considering just extended counterparts of standard call waiting and standard caller ID, we have recognized/discovered that such counterparts would have utility in terms of. 1) enabling a PSTN user at an online computer (a computer actively connected to the web or Internet, e.g. through a telephone line) to become instantly aware of and screen the importance of waiting telephone calls that are directed to a telephone line associated with a base account; and 2) that this type of function could be important whether the telephone line to which the waiting calls are directed is separate from or coincides with a telephone line through which the computer""s current web connection is being made. Furthermore, our discovery in this regard is that such extensions of call waiting and caller ID service could be used in conjunction with a variation of call forwarding service (what we presently call xe2x80x9cextended call transferxe2x80x9d) to allow the recipient of the the extended call waiting and/or caller ID services to selectively accept waiting calls and have them redirected to the recipient""s computer (e.g. via an Internet Phone application in the computer) without altering the online status of the computer.
Those skilled in the art will immediately appreciate, from these examples, and from the descriptions to follow that there are many other existing or potentially useful telephone services that could be beneficially xe2x80x9cextendedxe2x80x9d in this manner.
The present invention seeks to broaden service options available to authorized users of base telephone accounts as defined earlier, by providing xe2x80x9cextendedxe2x80x9d telephone services which may but need not necessarily be variations of existing standard telephone services (refer to earlier definitions of both standard and extended services). Existing standard services and other forms of telephone services having potential for extension in the manner presently contemplated will become readily apparent from what is to follow. The invention also seeks to provide a service capability for resource management intelligence in the PSTN that expands the type and character of services that may be provided to PSTN customers and other authorized users.
In accordance with the invention, extended telephone services are made available to authorized users of base telephone accounts in the PSTN, through networks external to the PSTN (e.g. the web and Internet). Extended telephone services of the type presently contemplated may be variations of standard telephone services that are currently provided in the PSTN or functions having no present counterparts in existing telephony. However, extended services generally are characterized in that they are deliverable through networks external to the PSTN.
Presently contemplated extended telephone services are provided to authorized users of base telephone accounts (i.e. individuals whose status as authorized users are subject to authentication by the PSTN prior to delivery of respective services). These services generally involve communications under PSTN control through networks external to the PSTN, and they are implementable by adaptations of resource management intelligence in the PSTN (either existing intelligence or intelligence installed hereafter); typically, by intelligence presently responsible for managing delivery of standard telephone services combined with means interfacing such intelligence to networks external to the PSTN.
Typically, and preferably, this type of resource management intelligence is exemplified by xe2x80x9cvoice peripheralxe2x80x9d (VP) processors of the type disclosed by Acker et al (cross-referenced application number 1 above) although other types of processing components may be used. VP""s and other processors are discrete components of multiprocessor intelligent peripheral (IP) systems used at regional telephone switching nodes of the PSTN. In the configuration taught by Acker et al, processors of an intelligent peripheral subsystem have specialized responsibilities, and VP""s are responsible for managing administration and delivery of telephone services. In a preferred implementation of presently contemplated extended services, a server within an IP system, at a PSTN node directly serving base accounts within a predefined geographic region, interfaces the respective node to a network external to the PSTN (e.g. the web, Internet, satellite radio system, etc.), and cooperates with a VP in the same IP system to perform functions administering such services and delivering them to authorized users of the base accounts; such functions including communicative interaction with the authorized users through the external network.
For example, delivery of an extended version of todays xe2x80x9cstandardxe2x80x9d call waiting service through the web would involve transfer of call waiting signal indications between a switch port within a PSTN node directly administering that service and a (multimedia) computer connected to a PSTN server at the respective node via the web; with the computer equipped with a state-of the-art web browser. The computer may be connected to the web through a telephone line, and that line may be either separate from or coincide with the line to which the waiting calls are originally directed. Call waiting indications presented at the computer could be either visible (e.g. a blinking icon) or audible (e.g. xe2x80x9cclickingxe2x80x9d sounds). In this operation, telephone call signals directed to a telephone line associated with a base telephone account, and presented in standard fashion at a switch port in the region serving that account, are intercepted by e.g. VP intelligence administering the account and signals representing call waiting indications are routed to the (authorized) user of the account through a local PSTN server, the web, and the user""s computer. The resulting xe2x80x9cextended call waitingxe2x80x9d indications, when used together with other extended services given below as examples, enable a user to screen waiting calls, ignore unimportant ones, route moderately important calls to an xe2x80x9cextended voice mailxe2x80x9d service (allowing the caller to record a message for later delivery via the web) and immediately accept delivery of most important calls (e.g. via a presently state-of-the-art Internet Phone type of software application).
Another example of extended service, of a type presently contemplated and useful in association with xe2x80x9cextended call waitingxe2x80x9d, is extended xe2x80x9ccaller IDxe2x80x9d. In this service, signals indicating origins of waiting calls to a base account telephone line, are redirected to an authorized user""s computer via the web and displayed to the user on the computer""s monitor. The displayed indications enable the user to screen calls and rank their relative importance or urgency. Another example of extended service, useful in conjunction with extended call waiting and extended caller ID, is extended call transfer. In extended call transfer, an authorized user of a n associated base account accepts a waiting call, the accepted call is connected to the user""s computer (through the PSTN server, the web and the user""s xe2x80x9conlinexe2x80x9d computer) and the voice signals of the accepted call are converted to suitable forms; signals directed from the PSTN to the web being converted to a compressed digital form suited to web transmissions, and signals from the web to the PSTN being converted e.g. to an analog form suited to transferral through a PSTN switch port to a calling party.
Another example of extended service in accordance with this invention, termed xe2x80x9cextended fax transferxe2x80x9d, is useful to route facsimile signals generated by standard analog equipment to an xe2x80x9conlinexe2x80x9d computer of an authorized user of the service, via the web. In this operation, signals representing the originally transmitted image are converted (e.g. by a VP) to a digital form best suited to presentation at an online computer, e.g. to an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) format of the type now widely used by computer web browser software. Thus, the received image could be selectively viewed, stored/downloaded for later viewing, and printed as any other web page material. This enables the user of the service to use their online computer to receive such images, in lieu of analog fax reception equipment and/or fax modem software (such software not being as simple to use as extended fax transfer, while a computer is actively connected to the web).
Another example of extended service, termed xe2x80x9cextended voice mailxe2x80x9d, provides users of the service with an option to have waiting telephone calls (e.g. calls screened by extended call waiting and extended caller ID) routed to a voice mail facility in the PSTN, for recording of a message and later delivery of the recorded message via the external network (e.g. the web). Thus, a user of this service could receive recorded voice mail messages through the web by means of a computer and an Internet Phone software application. This type of service could be easily extended to deliver other audible recordings to appropriately equipped computers linked to the PSTN via the web (that is recordings other than voice mail messages; for instance, recordings of educational materials and the like).
In all of the foregoing examples of presently contemplated extended services, the user of the service can be effectively anywhere in the world in relation to a (home or office) telephone line associated with a base account, even at a geographic location not directly served by the PSTN (e.g. in a remote region having only satellite linked radio facilities not directly maintained by the PSTN), and the services are receivable at devices other than standard telephone instruments (e.g. at computers connected to the web or Internet).
Other extendable telephone servicesxe2x80x94both variations of existing standard telephone services and services rendered practical solely by virtue of the extended usage presently taughtxe2x80x94will readily occur to those skilled in the telephony management arts.
To provide for presently contemplated extended telephone services, computer components of resource management networks within the PSTNxe2x80x94particularly, voice peripheral (VP) computers that are components of intelligent peripheral (IP) systems within resource management networks constructed in accordance with well-known principles of Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) architecturexe2x80x94are adapted (e.g. programmably) to interface between switch ports within the PSTN and networks external to the PSTN (e.g. the web, Internet, satellite radio systems, etc.), and to perform administrative and signal transfer functions requisite to respective services. These functions will be understood from the description to follow. IP systems containing VP computers and other computers as components are described in the Acker et al application of cross reference 1 above. In such IP systems, VP computers have specific responsibility for provision of telephone services at regional geographic nodes in the PSTN, and other computers have specific responsibilities for management of telephone call traffic and other telephony processes at the same nodes.
The foregoing and other features, benefits, advantages and potential uses of the subject invention will be more fully appreciated from the following description.